Oregon Living 2017 – Blog #98 – Walking the Dog & Electrical Issues

 

Monday, December 11th, 2017…...  I woke up early this morning thinking I may get a call for my dog walker job.  She texted me about 7:40 and I headed over.  The walk today was cold! We headed out a different way this morning and did another 1 ½ miles or so today. When we got back Penny was there to feed her.  She is feeling a bit better but didn’t need to go out in the cold. I got back home a bit later and got out the griddle and Lydia made us pancakes for breakfast.  One of my favs!  We spent a bit of time online shopping this morning.  We found out that Frances started a new job recently and may not be able to take time off to come up so we ordered her gift online.  Afterward I worked a bit on my landscaping project.  I have a walkway we are not happy with.  It starts at the back porch and goes to the driveway headed to the shop. Walt did a nice concrete walk, but – for some reason - set part of it up with flagstone rocks with tiny white gravel bits around them, in a curved border.  It doesn’t fit anything so we want to alter it a bit, maybe straighten it out and get rid of the little gravel. The future plan would be to repour the area and widen it enough for an rv to park there next to it.  Problem is – the ground’s too cold to work right now.  So, all I can do is rope it off and maybe think about how to remove the gravel.  Maybe my shop vac….. 

Even though it warmed up nicely this afternoon, I came in to the warm house a bit later and called it a day. Tonight Lydia made spaghetti for dinner and we enjoyed a quiet night watching tv until bedtime.   

Tuesday, December 12th, 2017…...  This morning we got up and moving early.  Penny felt better and took Quincy. But after my shower I discovered that we didn’t have power in either of the wall outlets in the master bath.  Tripped GFCI – right? Wrong.  I tested the GFI circuit and found it was working.  But the two outlets past it were not.  ???  I went to Ace Economy Hardware and got a new GFI outlet and replaced it. I wasn’t sure if that would do it and it didn’t.  I will have to get a regular outlet just to test the wiring. Meanwhile, Lydia left to go get her hair cut.  It’s ‘$10.00 Tuesdays’ at her place! I fixed myself some leftover spaghetti and bread and was full later in the day when she asked about dinner.  So, she made chili dogs and had chips.  That means I have the leftovers of that for tomorrow! I love chili dogs!     

Oregon Living 2017 – Blog #97 – A Quiet Weekend

 

Saturday, December 9th, 2017…...  The weekend usually means no real plans. Today was no exception.  Lydia worked on her email for a bit and I worked on my cubbies in my office.  I have rearranged my room and actually moved the tv and its room divider/storage cubby into the closet.  I have double folding doors so there was room. By moving it I have made two things happen – 1) I freed up some space which makes the space roomier and 2) I moved the 65” tv further back for safer viewing. The storage below the tv has fabric drawer units that I need to organize, and that was what I worked on today.  Lydia saved me from this ‘fun’ project by asking if I wanted to go grocery shopping with her. We got that done and things put away and then she fixed leftovers for dinner and then it tv till bedtime.  

Sunday, December 10th, 2017…...  We slept in this morning.  Penny texted me as I was getting up.  She wasn’t feeling up to walking Quincy and asked if I could come do it. I got dressed, bundled up, and headed over, stopping to get some coffee on the way.  Quincy sure likes her walks!  We covered about 1 1/2 miles today but it was all on the leash and I think she still had more energy when we returned. Penny fed her and then she rested and I went back home, stopping for breakfast and chai latte tea for Lydia. The rest of the day was uneventful. I watched some NFL football and Lydia watched her tape of the Pentatonix Christmas show.  I watched some of it as well. Those guys are sure talented! We had got some nice thick pork chops and Lydia made fried potatoes and gravy and peas to go with them.  Wow!  Back to football and taped shows till bedtime.  

Oregon Living 2017 – Blog #96 – Cold Days and Fixing Email

 

Thursday, December 7th, 2017…...  PEARL HARBOR DAY   Very cold today!  Here is the mailbox from this morning…

Ok, it’s official – I am now in long pants!  The girls got up early and left for Salem for Penny’s chemo. I walked Quincy and had to bundle up to do so.  It was down to 27º this morning. Both cars are garaged but I have been leaving my truck out at night.  My plan today was to go down to Eugene and do some Christmas shopping but I had to scrape ice off the windshield so I could see. I did get going and stopped in town for breakfast.  Our favorite place, Kevin’s, is closed for a few days.  He had a grease fire that caused a little damage and he’s going to shut down and do a deep cleaning before reopening. I hit Jerry’s, Harbor Freight and Habitat for Humanity before heading back home.  Once there, I walked Quincy again and then went out to work in my shop a bit.  The girls got back and they were hungry so we went up to the local food truck – Stick a Pork In It – and got dinner.  Then it was relaxing and tv till bedtime.    

Friday, December 8th, 2017…...  Nothing planned this morning.  Penny felt up to walking Quincy and felt good when she returned.  We ate breakfast and I worked on getting email back on my phone.  I still try to use my verizon.net email address but since Verizon got out of the email business and Frontier (which we are no longer part of here) decided to support their email through AOL, my phone email goes out every now and then.  I managed to get it all operating through pop3 so all is good now.  I put my truck in the garage last night so I didn’t have to scrape the windows.  Penny is here and put a cover over her windshield and that helped.  It is sure chilly but it warms up pretty quickly and that makes it so nice up here!  We’ve been watching the fires in LA area.  Wow!  It’s making the news even up here! They could use some of our rain.  Penny went home for the afternoon and left Quincy here for the day. I walked her again and then worked in the shop and Lydia worked on laundry. Penny came back and said she was doing well so she picked up her dog and went back home. Lydia fixed a Birdseye Pasta and garlic chicken and veggie stir meal.  It was ok. We watched tv and went to bed.   

Oregon Living 2017 – Blog #95 – Laundry and a Christmas Light Show!

 

Tuesday, December 5th, 2017…...   Today was laundry day. I fixed breakfast and then helped Lydia get the clothes out to sort for her loads and then went out to the shop for the morning.  Just organizing and cleaning up a bit. Not much else going on.  I stayed out there even though the shop was a bit chilly.  I do have a wood stove in there but I’ve haven’t used it yet. Maybe tomorrow.  It’s supposed to get down in the low 30s.  We’ll see….

Lydia got her laundry done and I helped put things away and then we fixed dinner. Ok, she fixed dinner. She made chicken fried steak with corn and baked potatoes.  Very good.  I behaved myself and even saved leftovers for lunch tomorrow!  

Wednesday, December 6th, 2017…...  We woke up this morning to frost on the ground!  The temperature is 34º!  I have a water hose laying out by the garage and I check it each morning if there’s frost.  It was ok (and there is no water line connected to the coach) but just in case I’ve decided to have the motorhome winterized when I take it in next week!  We went into town to have breakfast and then went over and got signed up at the fitness center.  They told us they are open 24/7 and we now have cards to swipe whenever we want to go work out. The only thing I don’t care for is that they don’t have locker rooms. And there are only two shower rooms. Everybody wears their workout clothes to and from.  I’m used to changing there so something to get used to.

This afternoon Penny (and Quincy) came over around 2:00pm.  The plan was to go to the Oregon Gardens and she would stay the night.  Tomorrow is her next round of chemo and she and Lydia can leave from here and I will have the dog already.  We headed out and made the 40-minute drive to the gardens.  The tickets I bought online ($3. ea.) were only good for the lighted Christmas event which starts at 5:00pm.  We got there about 3:00pm and since none of us had eaten anything since breakfast we decided to continue on to Silverton and find a place for linner.  We settled on 310 Water Restaurant.  This place was terrific!  I chose the halibut croissant sandwich with avocado, Havarti cheese, tomato, and slaw.  It was excellent! Lydia had the fish and chips and Penny ordered the blue cheese burger and all of it was very good.  After the great meal, we drove back to the park. We paid the park admission ($5. ea) and got shuttled up to the entrance.  We had to wait until 5:00pm to get in but it wasn’t too cold yet. We walked around the entire gardens and thought it was really well done. The weather got colder once the sun went down completely but they had firepits where you could warm up a bit as you walked through the lighted displays.  

If you were to compare this to some of the glamour displays folks now set up at their own homes, it would be just so-so, but up here, it was really well received.  We ended up spending about 1 ½ hours walking through and then headed home.  It was a fun experience. But we are planning on going back sometime again in the daytime just to see the gardens again.

Oregon Living 2017 – Blog #94 – Christmas Shopping and Just Puttering Around

 

Sunday, December 3rd, 2017…...   It’s Sunday, so we had nothing planned today.  The weather was really nice and I decided to go out to the shop and work on my work table project for a while.  I also took some time to go out to the motorhome and catch up on some taped shows. I also ran the coach for a while to keep the batteries charged up.  I will have to move it, hopefully next week or the week after, when the guys show up to start surveying for the new rv garage. At that time, I plan to take it to the rv shop in Sweet Home (or elsewhere) to get some work done.  I also plan on stopping at the DMV to get it registered while I’m out.  I spoke with Janie this afternoon. She told me about our annual club (Camping Squares) Christmas campout this past weekend.  We both really miss camping with our friends! We plan to get back down there but not anytime soon.  We’ve invited any/all of the Club members to come up and visit us.  So far, we’ve had the Moores and the Myers here on two different occasions. Hopefully, others will come up and visit. After it got chilly in the shop, I closed up, came in, and called it a day. I went online and did a bit of Christmas shopping and also went to The Oregon Gardens website and got tickets to the park for Wednesday.  Penny will go with us.  More on this after we go….

Later, Lydia got the rest of our Christmas cards done and I got them stamped and in the mail for pickup tomorrow.  She defrosted some ground turkey and we made burgers and tater tots for dinner and I watched football and she watched Christmas movies.         

Monday, December 4th, 2017…...  We left early this morning and stopped to try the Sweet Home Café for breakfast.  It was ok but we like Skyline there better. The reason we went to Sweet Home is that they have an rv shop there and I wanted to check to see if they would/could work on my coach.  They think they can so I made an appointment to take it in for next week for them to look at.  Hopefully it will coincide when my guys show up here and I have to move it out of the way for the excavation for the rv garage. That done we stopped on the way back at Walmart and exchanged some curtains and then headed home. I went out to the shop and worked on my island/workbench. I’ve now got it raised up about 3 ½ inches and positioned on the shop floor above my sawdust collection system so I can now think about where to put my table saw. I still have to clean up some of the drawers and get them back in plus think about what kind of top to put on it. But the weather is nice (just a bit chilly) and it’s supposed to be clear skies and dry for the next 5-6 days so it was a good time to get this done. Also, I can’t think about mowing the lawn for a few days yet.  It’s still soggy from the recent rains and needs several days to dry out.  Lydia worked on the curtains and we got them hung. Then it was time for dinner. Tonight was chicken and black bean burritos.  One of my favorites! We watched Carol Burnett’s 50^th anniversary show (taped) and went to bed.   

Oregon Living 2017 – Blog #93 – Shopping and a Bazaar

Friday, December 1st, 2017…...  I left early this morning and headed to my sister’s.  She needed some help getting down her Christmas decorations. That done, we headed off to Albany while Lydia stayed home and rested. I took her to a favorite stop of mine, Muchas Gracias, and bought us both breakfast burritos.  Next stop was Harbor Freight, then Big Lots, then Costco.  We headed back home and unloaded stuff (she bought a new recliner) and then I headed home.  I had received a call saying my trailer was done and I could come get it.  I stopped by and looked at it and brought it home. They didn’t take credit/debit cards so I went back and gave them a check.  They put on a new axle and new fenders so it is now road ready.  I still want to replace some floor boards and replace the wiring but that will be done when I get time. Lydia fixed a chicken casserole for dinner (and enough for leftovers, yes!) and we settled in to tv and bed.          

Saturday, December 2nd, 2017…...  Penny texted me this morning, asking if both of us or Lydia wanted to go to a Christmas Fair/Bazaar. I passed and chose to work on putting up the rest of the garland and doing a few other projects around the house, stopping to watch college football now and then. They spent most of the day shopping and having lunch and got back early afternoon. Lydia sat for a few hours to rest her sore legs from walking all day. Later, we worked on Christmas cards for awhile and had leftovers from last night plus the garlic knots and salad Lydia brought back from their lunch this afternoon.  We each watched some of our taped shows before calling it a night.  

Oregon Living 2017 – Blog #92 – Shopping & a Movie

 

Wednesday, November 29th, 2017…...  Plans today included getting the rest of the Christmas stuff done and the boxes put back into the shop.  That took several hours but we’re done.  Almost. We went to Lowes and Home Depot looking for a few more things.  It’s funny – we had a place for each and every decoration at the old place – like garland that went around each interior door.  This house has taller doors so we need to regroup and rethink.  We ended up finding what we needed but they were out of stock for some of it.  I will go back on Friday. But we got the rest of what we wanted and got it all installed.  So now except for the garland for the doors, we’re done! We drove back through Corvallis to go to Bed Bath and Beyond looking for a replacement for Lydia’s credit card holder thingy.  No luck.  I’ll look online when we get home.    

Thursday, November 30th, 2017…...  This morning we decided to go to Eugene for breakfast, shopping, and a movie, not necessarily in that order. We stopped at the Kozy Kitchen for breakfast. We’d been there for dinner and it was good for breakfast as well. We then caught the matinee showing of Daddy’s Home 2 at our favorite theater (the one with the reclining chairs).  It was only $5.25 ea. Then we stopped at Kohl’s, Cabela’s, & Sears and got a few things.  Then we drove over to Jerry’s Hardware.  I wanted to show Lydia their Christmas section which was awesome!  Didn’t buy anything, but she found ideas for next year!  We had skipped lunch so we were hungry.  We stopped at home just long enough to get our card for Pizza Schmizza, which is in town.  We hadn’t been before but got the card at Beerfest so we decided to try it.  They have about 45 specialty beers and good pizza, reasonably priced.  It was all very good and will go on our return-to list. We came back home and turned on all the lights.  With battery switches on some of her angels and snowmen, plus the Christmas village, and the lighted window snowflakes, we have 19 lights to turn off and on.  Only the tree is on a timer. Guess I need to find the rest of my timers! We watched tv and headed off to bed after a long day.